Zuckerberg grilled in court over social media harms on teens

Meta’s CEO was questioned over the addictive nature of its social media apps like Instagram, and other teen harms.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in court on Wednesday in a landmark trial aiming to determine if the tech giant’s social media applications are addictive and harmful to teens and kids. The trial, taking place in L.A. Superior Court, already revealed that Meta’s own research indicated that parental supervision couldn’t prevent teens from compulsive use of social media, and teens who faced traumatic life experiences were even more inclined to overuse social media.

Lawyers for the plaintiff, a 20-year-old who goes by her initials KGM, questioned Zuckerberg this week about whether Instagram employees were given goals to increase daily app usage. The Meta CEO had said during an earlier Congressional hearing that this was not the case, the AP noted, but a 2015 email chain presented as evidence in the trial showed Zuckerberg pushing to increase users’ time spent in app by 12%.